1. Field
The present invention relates to a method of determining a location of a robot (i.e., a localization method for the robot), and more particularly to a localization method of the moving robot to correctly recognize the location of a moving robot using an omni-directional image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an omni-directional camera is adapted to acquire an omni-directional image (i.e., an image of 360° in the vicinity of the camera). In recent times, a localization method of the moving robot has been introduced to the market. In the case of the localization method, the omni-directional camera has been mounted to the moving robot so that the localization of the robot is performed using the omni-directional image captured by the omni-directional camera.
A representative example of the above-mentioned omni-directional camera mounted to the omni-directional robot to recognize the location of the robot has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-160463, which is hereby incorporated by reference. According to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-160463, an omni-directional vision sensor including an omni-directional visual view to a moving object allows the moving object to move along a specific path, and at the same time the omni-directional vision sensor acquires the images in the vicinity of the moving object using a time-series standard pattern. If a moving object moves along a predetermined path, the acquisition image of the omni-directional vision sensor is compared with the image based on the standard pattern. If the acquisition image of the omni-directional vision sensor is equal to the above-mentioned standard pattern image, the location associated with the standard pattern image is recognized as the detection result.
However, the above-mentioned conventional localization method of the moving object estimates only the approximate location of the moving object, instead of the correct location of the moving object, so that it has difficulty in localization of the moving object,
Also, the conventional localization method of the moving object uses the dynamic programming algorithm as the matching algorithm. This dynamic programming algorithm is very sensitive to errors, so that the localization accuracy is greatly deteriorated.